Life Is All About Relationship

One of the major themes that emerge in NDEs is that life is about relationship. Once we begin to understand what this means, a whole new world of understanding emerges. Whereas before we may have focused on some areas of our life and ignored others, now we realize that we need to pay attention to everything. Our relationships in the outer world with our bodies, plants, animals, and fellow human beings all become very important. Our relationships with ourselves and the unseen forces of life also become very important.

What we are being asked to do is to recognize that God lives in all things and to treat all things accordingly.

To take food as an example. The way unconscious people live their lives, is that they don’t think about where their food comes from, how it is grown, or whether or not pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms are used to grow it. They don’t care. They are hungry and they unconsciously move to meet this need without any thought for the consequences of their actions. As we become more conscious, we start to realize that our choices affect not only the health of our body, but the health and wellbeing of everything else. We realize, for example, that producing food using organic methods of farming are healthier for all concerned than using conventional methods. Whereas conventional farming focuses on making money and producing as much food as possible, organic farming tries to consider the vitality and nutrition of the food, the impact this food has on our bodies, how plants and animals are affected, what the impact is on the water tables and eco-systems, how everyone and everything downstream is affected, including future generations.

Ditto for factory farming. We realize that raising animals in factory farm situations is a terrible way to treat animals, who are conscious, intelligent, emotional beings in their own right. Insisting that animals are treated humanely leads to thinking maybe we shouldn’t eat them at all. So our level of awareness, coupled with the choices we make (which includes how we spend our money), not only makes a significant difference on the health (or lack thereof) of our bodies, but on the world at large. Some near-death experiencers report seeing the positive effect more loving choices have on the whole of life. These choices are not only good for their bodies, and the other beings they share life with, but they produce waves of love that echo throughout the universe.

And what is true of food, is also true of all the other aspects of our life. The more conscious we become, the more carefully we examine all the different areas of our life and attempt to bring those areas into greater peace and harmony.

In the end result is that our overall health, happiness, and sense of well-being increases. We not only become more godlike in our thoughts and actions, but we begin to feel more godlike in the love and connection we feel with everyone and everything. And the reverse is also true. The more self-centered, unconsciousness, uninformed, careless, and sloppy we are with how we live our lives, the unhappier and unhealthier we are; the more we visit hellish realms and states of consciousness that reflect back to us our disconnected, unhealthy, ungodlike thoughts and behaviors.

So the kind of food we eat and lifestyles we choose to live have both personal and far-reaching consequences.

The other thing that I think is very important to emphasize is that we all seem to have a tendency to focus more on some areas of our life than others. Maybe we feel a need to be more present and mediative… and find that focusing too much on food issues is distracting, or somehow beside the point.

What I would suggest is that while there may be times in our lives when we need to give certain things more attention than other things — and need to do this by drawing our energy away from other aspects of our lives — at the end of the day, it’s been my experience, that life always circles back to whatever aspects of our lives (and selves) we have temporarily left behind. The central idea is, again, that we are being asked to learn how to be in harmonious relationship with ALL the forces we share life with, not just those we might feel a special affinity with in any given moment.

It has also been my life experience that if we are truly seeking balance in any area of our life that that area will eventually lead us to seek balance with the other areas of our life that may have been sidelined. In other words, it appears that we are being asked to do the impossible: to love, honor, and be in conscious relationship with all the forces of life, within and without.

Categories

Quotes

"Unlike spiritual paths that arose from the ideas and inner experiences of lone, isolated human beings, the path presented by near-death experiences is emerging as a direct, grassroots revelation that millions of people from all over the world are receiving and sharing. If we explore this newly emerging path deeply enough, we discover that all religions, philosophies, and cultures are honored; that science and spirituality are celebrated; that both the human and spiritual side of our natures are cherished and embraced. In short, near-death experiences present us with a universal, all-inclusive, perfectly integrated spiritual path that revolves around three core truths: 1. We are all one; 2. Love is the essence of life; 3. We are here, in this world, to become perfect embodiments of the Divine." -- David Sunfellow

“Merely learning about the near-death experience has effects similar to those reported by NDErs.” -- Kenneth Ring,
from "Lessons from the Light"

“For me personally, I’m showing more love to others now than before I started my near-death-experience studies. My understanding of near-death experiences has made me a better doctor. I face life with more courage and confidence. I believe NDErs really do bring back a piece of the afterlife. When NDErs share their remarkable experiences, I believe a piece of the afterlife, in some mysterious way, becomes available to us all.” -- Jeffrey Long, "Evidence of the Afterlife"

"I'm not asking you to believe anything. I'm simply telling you what I believe. And I have no idea what the next life will be like. Whatever I saw was only from the doorway, so to speak. But it was enough to convince me totally of two things from that moment on: One, that our consciousness does not cease with physical death; that it becomes, in fact, keener and more aware than ever. And secondly, that how we spend our time on earth, the kind of relationships we build, is vastly more important than we can know." -- George G. Ritchie, M.D., summarizing his famous near-death experience which helped launch the near-death experience movement. From his book, "Return From Tomorrow"

"Many events in my life I experienced, but not from how I remembered it, but from the point of view... [of] how the people, animals, environment experienced it around me. I felt it as my own. The times I had made others happy, and sad, I felt it all as they did. It was very apparent that every single thought, word, and action affects everything around us and indeed the entire universe. Trees, plants, animals too. I have been a long-term vegetarian since about 18 years old and I know this was appreciated and is a good choice in life. Spiritually it seemed to show proof of respect for all life, and even seemed to balance some of the negative and wicked things I have done in my life. In the life review we judge ourselves; no one else does. The light/god did not. But with no ego left -- and no lies -- we can't hide from what we have done and feel remorse and shame, especially in the presence of this love and light. Some of the things in life we think of as important don't seem to be so important there. But some of the insignificant things from the material human perspective are very important spiritually." -- Justin U describing his near-death experience on the NDERF website

"I have never interviewed anyone who had a near-death experience who told me that they came back to make more money or to spend more time at their jobs away from their families... Instead, they become convinced that they need to be more loving and kind. They react to their experience by living life to its fullest. They believe their lives have a purpose, even if that purpose is obscure to them. Invariably it involves concepts such as love of family or service to others. They seem to know that the love they create while living will be reflected and radiated back to them when they die." -- Melvin Morse, M.D., from his book, Parting Visions

“I went into this tunnel, and I came into this room that was just beautiful. God held me, He called me by name, and He told me, ‘Mary Jo, you can’t stay.’ And I wanted to stay. I protested. I said, ‘I can’t stay? Why not?’ And I started talking about all the reasons; I was a good wife, I was a good mother, I did 24-hour care with cancer patients. And He said, ‘Let me ask you one thing -- have you ever loved another the way you’ve been loved here?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s impossible. I’m a human.’ And then He just held me and said, ‘You can do better.’ ” -- Mary Jo Rapini, describing her near-death experience

"I asked them if there were other worlds. And they said, yes, the universe is full of other worlds -- and there are other dimensions of other physical universes and those are full of other worlds." -- Howard Storm describing his NDE in "My Descent Into Death"

"The Light kept changing into different figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, mandalas, archetypal images and signs. I asked the Light, “What is going on here? Please, Light, clarify yourself for me... The Light responded. The information transferred to me was that during your life after death experience your beliefs shape the kind of feedback you are getting before the Light. If you were a Buddhist or Catholic or Fundamentalist, you get a feedback loop of your own stuff. You have a chance to look at it and examine it, but most people do not. As the Light revealed itself to me, I became aware that what I was really seeing was our higher Self matrix." -- Mellen-Thomas Benedict

"God gave everything to us, everything is here -- this is where it's at. And what we are into now is God's exploration of God through us. People are so busy trying to become God that they ought to realize that we are already God and God is becoming us. That's what it is really about. When I realized this, I was finished with the void, and wanted to return to this creation..." -- Mellen-Thomas Benedict

“In one of my visits with the Light I was told that the near-death experience... would become more and more popular and it would have an affect on the entire world when a critical mass was hit and all these people have died and come back and are telling you that there is a lot more going on than we think." -- Mellen-Thomas Benedict